Coming to a close

It always amazes me how these weeks go. When I went to bed last Saturday, the first night here it seemed like it was going to be a long week. Here we are looking at one last full day and then we will be on our way home.

Yesterday it was back to Amatilan about 45 minutes from Guatemala City. This time we were on the other edge of the town where there is a small cement park. We began the morning with home visits and each group had stories of how God's presence and power was so evident. One group went to a home the missionaries had been to regularly but did not find her there. They went down a few doors to a home they had not visited in the past only to find the other lady there. She had come to her neighbor's house to pray with her that someone would come and share the word of the Lord. In walked two Guatemalan missionaries and three Americans who wanted to do just that! God's work here is wonderful.

In the afternoon we had our faith time with the children and adults. There were over 80 children and close to 70 adults. All gathered in a small cement square. it was exciting and challenging to share God's promises with the adults while the children were singing and praising God but it was glorious. When I was here last September I met a Guatemalan teacher by the name of Juan. He taught English as a second language. We had seen him on Tuesday and invited him to join us for the day. It was so cool! He was my interpreter and did an amazing job. We were pretty much speaking at the same time, he right on the heels of what I was saying.

After the long goodbyes there we headed over to lake Amatilan. Quite a large body of water near the city. Lot's of beautiful homes on the shoreline. We were able to get out and go down by a recreation area and sit on the edge of the shore for a while. It is something to think that families are living in those huge homes when just a few miles away hundreds of families don't even know if they will have a meal today. Then we went to the top of the mountain and looked across the city. It's hard to put into words what we saw as it stretched out across the valley and up the mountains.

Today we were back at La Liberatad. We began in a new area. New in the fact that the city had put dirt over a part of the filled garbage dump and let people move onto 12 x 12 meter spots. Most of the homes have dirt floors with pieces of the old garbage dump pushing through the dirt. There is no running water or electricity. People can go to selected spots with buckets to get water. Trenches run through the maze (that's really what it looks like) of alley ways to remove the water an whatever else. Yet in the midst of that children came running to hear us share the word of God with them. There is such a need and so much hurt there that it was hard for me to leave. Part of me wants to just stay with them and minister to them day and night.

Tomorrow we head to Antigua for a day of relaxing and site seeing. Then we will come back and pack for the trip home.

Thank you for your prayers each day. We have been blessed by God's presence and have seen his work in unbelievable places.

One quick request, Ruth is a young missionary here. She and her family live in La Liberatad. Her older brother had been threatened with death this weekend if he does not give a certain amount of money to one of the gangs that roam the city. These gangs do this often and have killed six people recently because they could not pay. We have been praying for God to surround that area of the city with angles with swords drawn to keep the evil away. Please join us in praying for Ruth's family and especially her brother's safety.

We will see you soon. God's peace and blessings - Pastor Mark